, we are running into these budget problems not the least of which as senator mcconnell mentioned earlier is the fact the me boo population of america is changing.hey'll be there will reach a point theyon government benefits that theyasd paid for over a lifetime and drw more and more of them draw on these benefits there is a question as to whether theo whet reserves are there to take caree of them. >> let m me speak to two particular issues that senator o mcconnell raised, the first social security.soci socialal security.prograthat i is there a program that is moree important to america? i can't thinkrt of one. that is d the starting point of the new deal. sen we've got to give seniors in america some peace of mind wheny retirement rolls around and they senior year rolls around they would in fact have enough moneya to live on, not in a luxurioussa way but the basics. my there was a time i can remember

families where grandparents moved back in with the kids andd there's no place to go. afford they could no longer work and ty they could no longer afford larr their homes and they became part of the larger family.ers. others. then can social security and asi little planning a savings and social security checks seniorasa citizens have independence. it is a critically important thing. it's an insurance plan, not a welfare plan, insurance plan that virtually every american paid into and every american we dream that. 3 d so where are we today? 198 i write in congress in 1983, hoe keom illinois and the said bro welcome to washington social i't security spoke. d in fact there was none.eagan and so president ronald reagan and the house speaker tip o'neill, the political odd nouple what you've ever seen one got together and hammer out an

agreement. the agreement th we reached andvoted for voted for in 1983 resulted in social security remaining solvent from then until 2037. we wanted to buy seven years of solvency that we got over 50. so those who seek today the social security is in trouble ih would remind them untouched with no action by congress socialas security would make every recipient of internet with a cost-of-living adjustment every there aren't many things to thi consider about washington that for over 25 years this program is financially sound. but the bad news is in 2027 things changed dramatically. don untouched at that point social a security benefits will go down 22%. now that is a heavy hit ond so w

low-income retirees andhat middle-income retirees. and so we know that will mean 25 years over the horizon is aidenb terrific challenge. president obama created a deficit commission.en senator harry reid wasough - kid enough i guess kind is a word, nicoe enough to appoint me toion this commission and i spent ten an then month listening and voted forro. the final commission product. sc it went into social security and suggested some things that are inherently controversial. for example, if you are going te give social security a longer in life what is the next? what will do cut in benefits? how much will you increase revenue. se i it is a basic arithmetic. social security is basic b arithmetic.as those basic decisions really get to the heart of when you retire how much we are receiving and the payroll reductions thisssioa month. so the commission reached an iti

agreement and the to -- the iports i didn't like that abous 75 years of solvency for socialt security. it is interesting that weit brought it up as a part of thero deficit commission because literally social securitys doesn't acted deficit. currently there is a surplus ins the social security trust fund and that trust fund is being invested in governmentrest, b securities and being paid interest but it doesn't add to y the deficit.agues and so many of my colleagues d that are geared why are we it debating social security as aect part of the deficit reduction if it doesn't have a degette connection and that is a point. i raised the same point myself. i think we should look at it. in we should do it in a separate tt and parallel deficit-reductiont conversation. because but it needs to be the starting because there is no connection between the two. preside then i heard senator mcconnell n say that the president hasn't

shown leadership on medicare.pey i respectfully disagree withle senator mcconnell. l the whole debate about health ol care reform was lowering the cost of health care. you cannot balance the budget of america with 13 million people unemployed and without addressing the skyrocketing cost of care. and so president obama worked t with congress, house and senate to reduce the growth in the cost of health care. one area was in medicare. and time and again the senator from kentucky and his colleagues can to the floor and gave critical speeches saying, quote0 the obama planas guinn to take $500 billion out of medicare day after day after day. 500 billion well, if we are seriously talking about budgetre deficit reform, if we are talki talking about medicare reform we are talking about reducing the r anticipated expense of medicare and reducing at least $500 billion of cost. would that mean to the

dcipients across america?it it would mean less coverage, a less care, it doesn't have to. i always use as an illustratione the average cost for medicare beneficiaries in my home town of average springfield illinois the average $8,000. up okay? looker what to chicago, specialty hospitals and higher cost of living cos it's not 78,s eight to $10,000 a year for thee average medicare beneficiary. but then you go to miami and ths number is 14 to $15,000 a year.y why the t difference between chicago and miami? ask. there bet is there a better care and florida or just more expensive care? nn we bring theca cost of the care down and not compromise the quality of the care hardto hav questions the the only questiont is the account if you want tofie doesn't sacrifice the basic benefits. i would say to senator mcconneln is he quoted me i guess earlier in the statement but i wasn't on the floor. yesterday i said i was propose y

supporting of the house republican budget with the budget proposed by senator is inouye.he this budget for the remainder oh $10 billion more out ofwe wouldh spending. we would cut $51 billion belowr. what president obama had asked for this year. reached 51. the in the house they wanthere $100 billion below what the a i think there is a qualitative not just quantitative but thebudget went trence in approach. far. i think the house republican budget went too far. i just don't believe we need to educat cut the basics of education for the income families acrosshouser america andepub that is the houe republican budget does. let me give you an illustration. be s the reduced dramatically the amount that's going to be spento onw m head start. i don't know how many members had a chance to visit head stare programs. i did a couple weeks agos in-ii chicago. these are kids from the lowest m income families in chicago. drop

likely to drop out without some intervention, likely to struggle in prepay and kindergarten and u most likely to have a difficultd time learning so they bring them into head start at an early age and they learned. the one i visited in chicago was nothing short of amazing.theyere they were teaching these littled kids and they were so so impressive, chinese as well as a nigerian dialect and these kids were just chattering awaynir i thought this experience being together, learning, singing,te being so happy about it cannotre help prepare these kids for the classroom setting they're goinge to learn in just a couple years. the budget dramatically cuts the head start programs. and these kids and the teachers andt the staff that support them will be gone under the proposal and what would happen to those kidsl i'm not sure.by babysitter down the street or whether someone else will witho

intervene but it's possible without early intervention and early training and education these kids are going to show s p in a year or two for pre-que and kindergarten and not be as far along as they should be. not be does that take their chances ofs success better?shou a course not.the se we know that.ouse the studies show it.uts the second hearing is the house republican money to school districts in the poor parts of america. now in my home state there are plenty of those. to in illinois for example. asstant to cut back on federalor c assistance to the poor communit, at this moment in time i thinkt. would really be a mistake.t we need to make sure these young people haveoo good teachers ands good resources and can learn even though they live in a town that is economically poor, the house republican budget cut fors the school districts and then cut the m money for pell grants. pell grants are the collegeiven grads given to students from fa. lower income families. many of them don't have a chanco

to go to school unless they gett a grant so they can proceed with their education. repubcan b the house republican budget cut $850 a year out of the pell perants grants for lower incomeme students.am students from lower incomef families.m that will mean many of them wilt drop out. when i went to visit with the lt president inhe the private luthr college in the quad cities areaq she awanticipated they would loe one of every 20 students because of the pell grants. so if students would have highih unemployment and a recession are dropping out of college becausee of house republican budget cutsa does that make america's work force even better or are we in a better position to compete withh china and the authors ofer the world war would we sacrifice our advantage because students have to drop out of school? i think the answer is obvious.ea that is why the house republican budget which some support. too it cuts too much education. edu.

it would cut dramatically medical research. d what were they thinking in thewt house representatives that we would cut the national rrch institutes of health, medical research and critical areas alzheimer's, looker six diseases diabetes, cancer, at a time when we know that research and innovation our critical for america's success why would the house republican budget cutbacks and dramatically in areas withky ro payoff. poo they've made some poor choicesay and that is why i support the senate democratic approach.ing n $10 billion in cuts but preserving and education, worker training, education research, innovation and infrastructure the investments we need at thise moment in historyce with the americans outrk of work. so that to me is why the difference rast. is so stark and contrast., s president mcconnell -- senator o mcconnell spoke with the president and said he needed to show more leadership.he i know where the president is on

fhe street he wants us to reach agreement in terms of thes decisions which we need to makea to move towards a balanced budget but we need to do it in a cess rkoughtful way, first coming out of the recession making america's work force stronger for the future, helpingn small-business is create jobs and investing in infrastructure which creates good paying jobs right here in america. >> and a few moments part of the news conference with the chinese foreign minister.

at a monday news conference in beijing the chinese foreign minister to questions on several issues including how u.s.-china relations are affected by taiwan and restrictions on foreign journalists working in china. this half-hour portion as courtesy of china's central television. the english translation follows the chinese.

>> i have two questions. last year we saw some china and u.s. relations in particular because of the u.s. arms sales to taiwan. it caused strains on the china u.s. ties. how do you see the future of this financial relationship? what will be the reaction from the chinese side of the united states further sells weapons to taiwan? second, foreign journalists encountered some difficulties and restrictions in their reporting activities in china in the past weeks. some foreign journalists or even be ten. what is your comment? >> [speaking chinese]

>> translator: first i would like to say that we all know president hu jintao paid a visit to the united states of the invitation of president barack obama last january. that visit achieved full success. an important agreement was reached between the leaders of the two countries and further advancing china u.s. relations. in particular, the agreement was reached on building a china u was cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefits. >> [speaking chinese] >> translator: there is now

good atmosphere in the china u.s. relations. >> [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] we have a full agenda involving china and u.s. relations and in the following months the vice premier will co-chair with their

u.s. counterparts, the third round of the china and u.s. strategic and economic dialogues. state councilor will attend the second meeting of the ty u.s. high level mechanism on people to people exchange. moreover, vice president joe biden of the united states will visit china late this year and after that, vice president will pay a visit to the united states at a convenient time. >> [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese]

>> translator: with respect to the partnership i would like to emphasize here that we live in an era marked by deepening economic globalization and the common pursuit of peace, development and cooperation. to pursue cooperation as partners represents the trends of our times and the calls of the people. >> [speaking chinese] >> translator: both china and the united states are countries with important influence on world peace and development. the decision of the two

countries to establish a cooperative partnership meets the requirement of the times and also is required by deepening cooperation between the two countries. >> [speaking chinese] >> translator: i believe more and more people in the united states have come to recognize that in handling the united states relations with china in this new environment we need to embrace new ideas and foster a favorable atmosphere.

[speaking chinese] >> translator: the presidents of the two countries have charted the course for future development of china u.s. relations. what we need to do now is to seize the momentum, built on the progress, implement the agreement reached by the leaders of the two countries and take solid steps in building the china news cooperative partnership.

>> [speaking chinese] >> translator: it is an objective reality that china and the united states have some differences or even frictions over some issues. >> [speaking chinese] >> translator: what's important is to properly handle these differences on the basis of mutual respect. you mentioned the u.s. arms sales to the question and we firmly opposed the u.s. arms sales to taiwan. >> [speaking chinese]

[speaking chinese] >> translator: we urge the united states to strictly abide by the principles in the spirit of the joint communique and the joint statement stop selling arms to taiwan and take concrete actions to support the peaceful development across the street relations. this is very important in upholding the overall interest of china and u.s. relations. ..

what i have seen is the chinese people that they do a full chinese new year, lantern festival. now they are busy doing their own work, focusing their attention on pursuing domestic development. these are what i had seen and i don't want to see anyone making something out of thin air.

[speaking chinese] >> translator: what i feel is actually in some countries, including some developed countries, the people they are as much on their minds. [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] >> translator: people in those countries had seen that china has sustained an average 10% growth rate over the past 30 and

more in its reform and development. it has lifted so many people out of poverty and it has succeeded in tackling the international financial crises. when people ask themselves, what is the secretive china in may kenobi's accomplishments? maybe we can spend more time studying this. [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] >> translator: china is ready to exchange experiment

experience to join on each other's strength in various fronts. we don't think that our road ahead will be all smooth, but we have the confidence and the result that we will be able to overcome difficulties on the way ahead under the correct leadership of the ccp committee and make greater progress in developing a prosperous society not respect. [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] >> translator: china is a country under the rule of law that abides by the law. it has always followed relevant laws and regulation, managing

foreign journalists in china. we will continue to provide convenience for foreign journalists in conduct team here it will continue to do so. [speaking chinese] transcode this policy of ours will not change. >> translator: [speaking chinese] will continue to provide convenience, foreign journalists and making this coverage and at the same time we hope to foreign journalists will abide either chinese laws and regulations. [speaking chinese] >> translator: there is no such issue as chinese police and

foreign journalists. [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] [speaking chinese] >> translator: i'm with china radio international. we have seen that china has five more cherry bombs from some european countries. and after that, we have heard

two kinds of voices in the international media. one voice has expressed appreciation of china's move in helping european countries to tackle their sovereign debt crisis. another voice is one of suspicion and worry. so i would like to ask, what is the strategic consideration about this move on the part of china and what steps will the chinese government take this here to advance its relationship with europe? [speaking chinese] >> translator: well, i don't know why we have to address each and every issue at a strategic level. [speaking chinese]